After a hard fought 33-20 victory in La Rochelle on Thursday evening that followed a comfortable 23-10 win over Zebre last week, Gloucester extended their winning run in the Challenge Cup to 11 games. That coupled with Zebre’s victory over Worcester on Saturday leaves the Cherry and Whites top and four points clear in Pool Four. A good start to the European campaign then, but how much can be taken from these results?
The Challenge Cup is very much the poorer sibling to the Champions Cup; the fact Gloucester won it last year and didn’t automatically gain qualification for the Challenge Cup demonstrates how much lower the rewards are. After losing a play-off against Bordeaux-Begles Gloucester find themselves in this tournament again and with a dilemma. Because of the World Cup the European tournaments are the only cup competitions and therefore the only chance to rotate the squad. The compressed season does however mean that if Gloucester could retain their title they would gain entry to the Champions Cup for next season.
It would seem sensible then to take this tournament seriously with only seven more victories needed to return to top tier European rugby. But the problem for Gloucester is that they need to do better than their 9th place finish in the Aviva Premiership for some tangible evidence of improvement.
Two weeks ago Gloucester put in a highly disappointing performance in a lacklustre defeat to Wasps, and I wrote about how this did not bode well for building a better league campaign. The second half against Zebre, where Gloucester failed to score a single point and gain the try bonus point, was further evidence of that. Fortunately the performance against La Rochelle could be a turning point. We saw Ben Morgan at his rampaging best, Charlie Sharples back on the wing and scoring a fantastic try from his own half and a near full-strength team overcome a partisan atmosphere in the Stade Marcel DeFlandre.
What does this mean for the trip to Northampton next Friday? Will we see a Wasps performance or a La Rochelle performance at Franklins Gardens? As we have seen the motivation for clubs in the Challenge Cup is low, particularly for French sides, so how much weight I give to the last two results is debatable. I think it would be naive to expect a victory but a competitive performance is a must.
In terms of the Challenge Cup, Gloucester shouldn’t fear any sides in the tournament and should reach the semi-finals at least. But improvement in the Premiership should be a priority. The Cherry and Whites are in danger of being left behind as clubs like Wasps and Exeter continue to establish themselves in the top six. For now, I would put faith in the squad players and use Europe as a time to experiment. Winning the trophy saved face last season, but it won’t be enough consolation this time.
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